[nfb-talk] Blind Job Seakers Still Face Discrimination:

[Kenneth Chrane]

Mar 16, 1:50 PM EDT

Employer bias thwarts many blind workers

By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Technology and training have improved to the point that
blind people can adeptly perform a dazzling array of jobs - soon to include
the governorship of New York. The biggest obstacle still in their way,
advocates say, is the negative attitude of many employers.

The most recent available statistics suggest that only about 30 percent of
working-age blind people have jobs. That figure was calculated more than 10
years ago, but the major groups lobbying on behalf of blind Americans
believe it remains accurate despite numerous technological advances.

"Most people don't know a blind person, so they assume that blind people are
not capable of doing most jobs when in fact that's not true," said Chris
Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind.

Exhibit A, for the moment, is David Paterson, the legally blind lieutenant
governor of New York from Harlem who will be sworn in Monday as governor,
replacing scandal-tarnished Eliot Spitzer.

However, blind people hold all sorts of jobs these days - judge, fitness
trainer, TV show host, registered nurse, lawyer and so on.

"Unfortunately we're still living in an age of misperceptions of what blind
people can do," said Carl Augusto, president of the American Foundation for
the Blind. "We're hoping that an employer considering hiring a blind person
will say that if David Paterson can be governor and be legally blind, maybe
this applicant who is blind can be a good computer programmer."

There are an estimated 10 million visually impaired people in the United
States, including about 1.3 million who are legally blind, according to
Augusto's foundation. The foundation says legal blindness is generally
described as visual acuity of 20-200 or less in the better eye, with a
corrective lens. Paterson has enough sight in his right eye to walk unaided,
recognize people at conversational distance and read if the text is close to
his face.

In theory, those people are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act,
which among its many provisions requires employers to give fair
consideration and treatment to visually impaired employees and job
applicants. But Augusto said employers routinely turn down blind applicants
without incurring legal sanction.

"The ADA is a wonderful law, but many employers find a way not to seriously
consider blind people," he said. "They look at themselves and then say, 'I
can't imagine how a blind person can be a computer programmer. They can't
possibly do it.'"

Advocacy groups work persistently to change such attitudes, with employer
education programs and public appearances by successful blind people to
discuss their capabilities. One component of such campaigns is to raise
awareness of the ever-evolving technology that helps blind people handle
more types of jobs - including software that reads aloud information on a
computer screen and scanners that can covert printed material into Braille
or an accessible electronic format.

"The assisted technology has made the playing field as level as it's ever
been for blind people," said Kirk Adams, president of Seattle's Lighthouse
for the Blind, a nonprofit agency that provides job help. "There are fewer
and fewer jobs a blind person can't do."

Adams, 46, said being blind seemed a hindrance when he first began
post-college job hunting, but he was hired as a securities broker and later
served in various nonprofit fundraising jobs before moving to Lighthouse,
which has 190 blind people on its payroll.

One problem he notes is the difficulty many young blind people face in
getting short-term or part-time work during high school and college.

"There's a real divergence with sighted kids," Adams said. "It's very
typical that a blind kid at 16 or 18 is not having success finding that
first employment - we see a lot of frustration around that age because
employers may not be thinking about making those short-term jobs
accessible."

The American Foundation for the Blind says it latest research indicates that
once young blind people complete top-notch training and education programs,
they attain an employment rate not much lower than sighted people. But
Augusto said the overall portion of blind people with jobs remains low
because many older workers who lose vision in middle age drop out of the
work force rather than undergo retraining.

"You get a bunch of people in their 50s who all of sudden are visually
impaired - they can't drive anymore, they'll get Social Security benefits
and maybe disability insurance," Augusto said. "They say, 'The heck with it,
we're not going back to work. We don't want to go through the rehabilitation
training - it's too hard.'"

Kevan Worley, a blind Coloradan, runs a company that provides thousands of
meals a day to Army troops at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. About 70
percent of his 200 employees are blind or otherwise disabled.

"There are still stereotypes of blind people," he said. "When employers,
educators, even parents of blind kids have those stereotypes and low
expectations, many are being kept down and out."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which tracks workplace
discrimination cases covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, says
455 such complaints were filed last year by visually impaired workers - the
highest number since 1995.

"If someone's blind, there's a huge stigma to overcome and all kinds of
myths and fears in the employer community," EEOC spokesman David Grinberg
said.

"The fact is that in the 21st century workplace people who are blind are
just as able to do a job as anyone else - they just need to be given a
chance," he said. "They know the deck is stacked against them. They work
harder than others, and they end out being more effective workers."